Alanna Kraaijeveld

(chorégraphie, danse, voix, piano)

Alanna Kraaijeveld is a dance artist who performs, improvises, instructs, supports and creates. Her approach is centered on context driven, collaborative, unstable, and improvisatory practices and meetings. She has presented work at Guelph Jazz Festival, Vancouver International Dance Festival (VAN), Hundred Years Gallery (UK), FOUND festival and Spark Series (Studio 303, MTL), and Stella Adler Studio of Acting (NYC). With her years-long collaborator, saxophonist Yves Charuest, she improvises in live art and music venues.

Pivotal experiences include dancing with Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa under the direction of Peter Boneham (2004–2009), performing and touring with previously Montréal-based choreographer Dave St-Pierre (2012–2018), and studying with Athens-based Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek, developers of the Fighting Monkey Practice (2015–present). Each meeting precipitated a paradigm shift in her understanding of dance and her role within it, and revealed and expanded her capacity as an artist and person.

Kraaijeveld teaches nationally at professional dance training institutions. For several years, she has been hosting dialogic practice initiatives that happily assemble different practitioners, materials and disciplines. Examples include wrestling and voicework (Susanna Hood), judo and storytelling (Catherine Lalonde), clay sculpture and dance, approaches to improvisation with Marie-Reine Kabasha. These channel her artistic inquiry and connect her with artists of different ages, experience and creativity. She has a Master of Arts degree in Professional Practice (Dance Technique Pedagogy) from Middlesex University (UK).

Alec Charbonneau

(danse)

Alec, artiste émérgente dans le milieu de la danse contemporaine, se distingue par un parcours qui marie la physicalité et la théâtralité. Diplômé du programme de l’École de danse contemporaine, Alec développe dès son adolescence une compréhension unique du corps en étudiant le jiu-jitsu japonais, où il atteint la ceinture brune, et l’aïkido. Ces arts martiaux nourrissent sa vision de la fluidité et de l'équilibre dans le mouvement, sa nature interdépendant, influençant directement son approche de la danse. Il enrichit son vocabulaire corporel, ayant le privilège de se déplacer pour élarger son savoir-faire en Europe et au Canada.

Actuellement, il collabore avec Bouge de Là, Emine Adilak, et John Buck (John Lost) sur des projets de performance et les engagements axée sur la pratique.

Gregory Kustka-Tsimbidis

(drums, synth, piano, arrangement)

Gregory is a Montreal-based musician working in performance, composition, and music education. His precision, adaptability, and creativity support his engagement in a variety of settings, including jazz ensembles, concert bands, musicals, and band projects. He graduated in jazz performance from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in 2019.

Scott Bevins

(trumpet, sound processing, digital media)

Scott Bevins is a Montreal-based trumpeter and producer known for merging the organic with the synthetic in a tender dialogue between the human and the digital. Bevins’ work embraces spontaneity and imperfection, with no tune ever played the same way twice, reflecting his belief in music as a process of escape and transformation. As the visionary behind the collective No Cosmos, he breaks the conventions of structured performance, inviting collaborators to join him in a space that demands trust and creativity.

Scott is deeply immersed in the city’s eclectic music scene, performing across genres, from free jazz loft gigs to electronic rave environments. His experiences in these diverse settings, including his work with the band Busty and the Bass, inform his broad musical approach. Bevins sees his projects as more than just performances; they are ways to break free from formulaic structures and capture the raw magic that emerges from imperfection.

Mathieu Leroux

(dramaturgie)

Writer, theatre director, actor/dancer, and dance dramaturge, Mathieu Leroux is a graduate of L’École Supérieure de théâtre of UQAM (performance & directing profile). He co-founded Les Néos, writing and performing some 100 short plays in five years, while also being artistic director of this theatre collective. He created a long form solo (La naissance de Superman), and many group pieces (Les mains libres, Scrap, Clubby, etc.). Mathieu was part of the impressive cast in the cycle, Les Atrides, after co-signing the adaptation of the six-part greek tragedy. More recently, he acted as dramaturge on the tanzmainz production Twist for Mainz’s Staatstheater, and on Vancouver Ballet BC’s Relic. He created and performed the dance duet Bones & Wires with Sébastien Provencher (Tangente, May 2021). He performed in Other Animal’s Plasticity/Desires (mai, January 2024).

Leroux has built sustainable partnerships with prominent choreographers and has been working with, amongst others, Victor Quijada, Dorotea Saykaly, Helen Simard and Alexandre Morin for many years. He is part of the Danse à la carte mentoring team. Leroux earned his master’s degree in French literature at l’Université de Montréal (2011). His first novel, Dans la cage, was published to rave reviews by Héliotrope, and his short plays accompanying an essay on performing the self, Quelque chose en moi choisit le coup de poing, is at La Mèche. Many texts and short stories can be found in collectives and magazines (Flaneur, Spirale, LQ, etc.) while his newest novel, Camouflé dans la chair, was released September 2023.

With creative partner Alexandre Morin, he formed Morin/Leroux Arts Vivants, a transdisciplinary performance company, which counts 8 productions since its inception in 2018.

Jon Cleveland

(éclairages)

Jon Cleveland is a Montreal based Lighting Designer and visual artist. Recent work includes collaboration with Kim-Sanh Chau, Rubberband Dance, Collective Catch Step, 7Starr, and Sovann Rochon Prom Tep. Working across both theatre and dance, additionally he has been part of projects with artists and institutions Susanna Hood, Lucy M May, Charles Brecard, Rabbit in the Hat, Alexandre Morin, Malik Nashad Sharpe, Dave St Pierre, Nubian Néné, CCOV, Nien Tzu Weng, Camille Lacelle Wilsey, The Segal Centre for The Arts, The National Arts Centre, The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Tangente, mai, Cabal Theatre, Scapegoat Carnivale, among others. His design for Tragic Queens with Cabal Theatre was nominated for a 2017 META award for outstanding lighting design.